Phillips' Pursuit Of Gold Is Not Without Its Price

May 18, 1988|By Melissa Isaacson of The Sentinel Staff

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIF. — It hasn't been easy for Kristie Phillips these past few months. Actually, if such a thing can be traced, it has been less than a barrel of laughs ever since she was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated as America's next Mary Lou Retton.

Phillips was a 13-year-old then. She's 16 now. If you think there are worse things in life than being a teen-age cover girl, think again.

Phillips, you see, was one of the first names to emerge as a potential '88 Olympics star. She was Bela Karolyi's pupil back then (Bela Karolyi of Nadia and Mary Lou fame). And it was his proclamation that this would be the kid to watch.

His advice was solid for a few years. Phillips was the national junior champ in 1985 and 1986, won the senior championship in 1987, the first year she was eligible, and looked for all the world to be a shoo-in for a medal in '88.

What happened to her exactly, no one knows for sure. Karolyi, angry over being left off the U.S. delegation to the '87 World Championships, elected to stay away completely. Phillips, who has often caught criticism for not performing well under adversity, fell apart without her coach, finishing 47th overall.

Confused over Karolyi's principles where her career was concerned, Phillips returned to Houston but left Karolyi's for good several months later to join SCATS Gymnastics Academy in Huntington Beach.

SCATS, which has produced more Olympic gymnasts than any other club in the country, beginning with Cathy Rigby in 1968, is headed by Don Peters, who coached the Olympic team in '84 and after the resignation of Greg Marsden was named to coach the team again in '88.

Kristie says she likes SCATS, and it's easy to believe her. Shy and withdrawn when she came to Orlando this year to train with 24 other Olympic hopefuls, she seems more relaxed, more outgoing.

AT SCATS she trains with another elite gymnast, Sabrina Mar, whom Kristie called ''a good friend, something I've never really had before,'' which suggests exactly what it sounds like it suggests.

For Kristie, friends have lasted only about as long as it took for her to realize they were really not friends at all. ''I've always been the type of person who's glad when their friends win,'' Phillips said. ''But sometimes the other person doesn't hold up their end of the bargin.''

At Karolyi's, Phillips became an outcast. When his team would travel to meets, Kristie would often turn around to find the other girls had run off, leaving her behind. Other times, she said they would say things to her right before a meet that they knew would ''psyche me out.''

The incidents were no different from those that occurred to every other kid who has ever suffered through the pain of adolescence.

Every other kid, however, does not have to worry about striking the perfect mental balance to perform at the very highest caliber on the very highest level.

This is what has affected one of this country's greatest hopes in the upcoming Summer Olympics. A whisper, a sneer and finally another move across the country. Another school, another apartment, another job for her mother, Terri, who hasn't lived under the same roof as her husband in eight years.

Terri Phillips estimates that in addition to the emotional strain, she and her husband have laid out to anywhere between $160,000 to $180,000 for Kristie's career.

In Huntington Beach, she has taken on the job of making sure the apartments in her building are clean and ready to rent. Unlike Karolyi's, they don't allow her to watch Kristie's practices at SCATS, so Terri Phillips does her job and sews leotards. When Terri gets bored, she says she goes to the mall.

''I miss it a lot not coming to the gym,'' Terri says. ''It's hard for me to get out and make friends.''

She insists it would be all right if Kristie retired from competition tomorrow, that her daughter's happiness is all that matters. But the sacrifices are written all over Terri Phillips' face. And the strain of final Olympic preparation has left its imprint on both of them.

She has seen what she calls ''mental abuses'' by coaches. Her daughter has experienced them.

''Sometimes I feel as if I'll let everyone down if I don't do well,'' Kristie said. ''I really have to get my act together in the next few months.'' Think about that the next time you see some kid get a 9.6 on beam instead of a 9.8.